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The Electoral Commission is hurriedly contacting all counting officers in the UK telling them not to send out a controversial “biased” guides to postal voters which suggest they should support the Remain side in next month’s referendum.

The news came after the regulator told Bristol City Council – which has already sent the leaflet to 47,000 homes - to stop sending out the leaflet and launched an investigation into whether the issue was more widespread.

Other voters across the country last night said they too had received the same guides, suggesting that hundreds of thousands of voters might have been unfairly encouraged to back Remain.

More than six million people voted at last year's general election alone which suggests that millions might vote by post in the EU referendum next month.

A spokesman for the Commission said: “As a precaution, we are contacting all Counting Officers to make clear to them that if they are using images the same as, or similar to, the image used by Bristol City Council, they should ensure that these are changed before any further postal votes are distributed.”

The Telegraph established on Monday that voters in Kent have received the same form as voters in Bristol, while there were reports of the forms being sent to voters in Greater Manchester, West Sussex and Hertfordshire.

The How to Vote By Post guide has a pencil and hand indicating the Remain box'Credit:
Henry Michallat/Henry Michallat

Bernard Jenkin, the Vote Leave supporting MP who chairs a Commons committee that oversees the conduct of the referendum, said the development was “absolutely astonishing”.

Mr Jenkin said: “This is an absolute outrage that a form should be so bad that it has to be redesigned during a poll because it is so biased.

“How on earth did this happen and who is going to be held accountable? Bristol should reissue the forms to the 47,000 people who have received a biased form.”

Voters in Bristol, who have registered to vote by post, received the “how to vote by post” form as part of the EU referendum packs which were sent out at the end of last week.

The step by step guide includes advice to “read the instructions carefully, then complete your ballot paper” above an image showing a pencil in a hand hovering over the box to “remain a member of the European Union”.

Hours after The Telegraph disclosed the concerns about the guide on Monday, Bristol City Council said that it would redesign it before sending out the remaining 5,000 forms.

However a spokesman said the council would not be resending new guides to the 47,000 voters who have received the biased guides.

She said: “This form is designed to explain the logistics of voting by post and not to suggest how someone should vote.

Henry Michallat with his how to vote by post guideCredit:
Henry Michallat/Henry Michallat

“The placement of the pen graphic was entirely incidental and we do not believe that anybody could reasonably be influenced by such a graphic.

“However given current sensitivities, for all future postal vote dispatches, the form and graphic will be amended.”

The Electoral Commission said it believed the problem was isolated to Bristol but would investigate any further reports.

The Telegraph established on Monday that voters in Sittingbourne, Kent, have received the same form.

John Owen, whose wife Carole received the form, said the pencil on the how to guide was “hovering right over” the Remain box.

He said: “It is confusing to postal voters and I think it amounts to bias on behalf of the Remain campaign. I think by default people will vote for Remain – that is definitely the case. I think it is biased.”

Arron Banks, a backer of the Leave EU campaign, said the leaflet was “partial and biased”. He said: “We have every reason to believe these papers are not just being sent out in Bristol but nationwide. Even the Bristol intervention could determine the outcome.

“But if it is nationwide – and we believe it is – then it is very difficult to mess how any postal ballots can be taken into consideration, which throws the whole referendum into doubt.”

Vote Leave submitted a formal complaint to the Electoral Commission. Stephen Parkinson, its national organiser, said: 'It is completely unacceptable for official guidance from local councils to appear to tell people which way to vote.

"We have contacted the Electoral Commission to find out how many ballot papers might have been influenced in this way, and to ask them to take urgent steps to correct it."